Mystical Shasta
by Flint and Feather
Summary: Movieverse, set after The Golden Army. Hellboy is drawn by an ancient spirit shaman, to lead him to the rescue of tiny innocents. The demon father-to-be is anxious to wrap the mission and get home before the birth of his own children. Hope readers enjoy and please, please review?
1. Go West

**Disclaimer:** Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman and the B.P.R.D. are owned by Mike Mignola and Dark Horse for the comics, and by screenwriter/director Guillermo del Toro, Revolution Studios and Universal Studios for the feature films. Only the story events are mine.

* * *

"This is dreadful!" mourned Dr. Nina Samarand, "So very sad!" She turned her sightless eyes to his position at the conference table, to give Tom Manning the full effect of her tragic expression. The assembled agents of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence waited for their director to answer.

"Doctor, the Bureau is formulating a plan to locate the victims. Agent Sapien will soon be sent to Ireland to consult with Celtic Druid masters."

Abe Sapien spoke up. "With all due respect, Director, you are mistaken in supposing that the upcoming Sanhaim observance has any cause for blame in the disappearance of infants."

"That's for you to find out," Manning replied dismissively. "Our information suggests that the children being collected are specifically from endangered populations. This has happened on our continent in the past two days – eight newborns have simply disappeared from the birth hospital, right before the eyes of the staff. One was taken even as it was being delivered from its mother."

Hellboy hissed his disgust. Seated by him, Nina startled at the cutting sound. She understood why he was particularly sensitive to the subject.

Manning read, "These infants were born to the now few descendants of the native American tribes who lived around the mountain known as Shasta in northern California, centuries before the white man."

"My study of the area," Abe put in, "postulates that this mountain, long sacred to the indigenous tribes, may hold portals to other spirit dimensions. The surrounding mythology is ancient and extensive."

"That's where Hellboy will be investigating." Manning announced.

"You want me on the west coast, now?! Hellboy exclaimed, "when Liz will be delivering our own babies?! I need to watch over her. No kids will be more 'endangered' than mine! How good is this information?!"

"It's a lead, so we investigate, like always," Manning said, his tone casually final.

Hellboy turned to the doctor. "We'll put extra security on."

"Dr. Samarand will accompany you," added Manning.

"No! She's here to take care of my wife!"

"She's an expert on paranormal birth and whatever extends from it, so she goes."

Hellboy stood up explosively, careening his chair to crash against the wall behind him.

"You're sending away everyone I trust to protect Liz!"

Trying not to be shaken by Hellboy's mask of pure danger, Manning was grateful for the presence of others at the briefing. He didn't want to back down from the demon agent's rage to hurt him, but something else was needed...

"Red, ... we have hearts. I promise that no harm will come to Liz. But this is your job."

Barely under control as he glared at Manning, Hellboy touched Nina's shoulder. She stood and took his arm. He led the blind woman from the briefing room and along the corridors.

"Please, Mr. Bruttenholm, not so fast?" laughed Nina, nearly tripping as she failed to keep up with his agitated stride.

"Sorry, Doc, I should have realized." Hellboy stopped while Nina rearranged her shawl. She smoothed back her gray hair and smiled up at him, ready to resume their walk. "Would you just call me 'Red'?"

"Very well. I surely understand how it upsets you to be away. But Liz is due to deliver two weeks from today."

"Are you ever wrong?"

"About this, no," she soothed.

"I'm not worried about the rituals of Samhain," he explained, "but on the same day, first of November, occult forces we'd been fighting came covert-like into the Bureau and murdered my father."

"I know", she said sadly, "and I'm very sorry. But does it comfort you to know that your children will be born after that date?"

Hellboy patted her arm, holding his, to relay his confidence in her abilities. It had taken Abe Sapien some time to find the best paranormal obstetrical practitioner to oversee the birth of the most unique infants ever gestated, conceived by the most unique parents.

"The briefing – I didn't want Liz there, to hear the details," he said quietly, as they approached the couple's quarters.

"She knows," Dr. Nina replied, "Do you not think she asks questions when she knows you've been called to an investigation?"

"I need to talk to her. Come with me?" He guided Dr. Nina inside and seated her.

Liz, moving slowly these days, made her way to the couch and lowered herself to sit beside Nina, with the support of her husband's hand. She gave him one of her deep, secret looks before turning to Nina. "I'm glad you're here."

Hellboy knew automatically that it was his job to make tea for Nina. After serving the women, he took his own chair close by. "Got all our baby clothes put away?"

"Red," Liz purred, "Don't look so nervous, my Man."

"I never had more reason to be nervous."

"Abe wouldn't tell me much, said not until it was all right with you."

"So you found out anyway..." Red looked downcast.

"You have to go. You have to help and get those babies back to their families! I wish I could be with you."

His golden eyes lingered with fond tenderness on Liz' heavily pregnant belly, then locked with her sure gaze. "You know I will."

He could hardly concentrate on her conversation with Nina, but he felt their forgiveness.

Later, walking Nina back to her room, he tried to feel calm. He knew after weeks of being around her, how she could read him and others psychically, even the babies within Liz.

"Doc, I'll keep you away from trouble, no matter how I need to do it. Sid London is a steady guy. He'll stay with you at all times."

"I'm quite looking forward to it, Red," Nina smiled. "Imagine, at my age, being a temporary deputy agent with the Bureau!"

Hellboy had to give her props for her good cheer.

Red didn't want to sleep through the last of his hours with Liz. Though she needed her rest, she resisted, too.

"Any idea what to do in Mt. Shasta?" she asked, holding him tight.

"The sacred mountain – maybe it's a starting point. It's all new to me, Babe."

"Like this?" she whispered, carrying his hand to her belly. He felt the stirrings of the tiny lives they had created. Uttering a low moan, he grazed his lips across hers.

On the morning of departure, Hellboy was desperate to see Abe alone, and couldn't hide his displeasure to find that Manning was there before him. Hellboy took insult from the curt gesture when the director held up his hand to silence him.

"Manning, I've got minutes!" he gritted.

"When I've finished my conflab with agent Sapien -" Manning warned.

"A little con? A lot of flab?!" burst Hellboy without restraint. "What can't you say that includes me?!"

"I'm sending Abe to Ireland because I need a diplomat, and that isn't your strong suit by a long shot!" Manning's mouth firmed, and he exhaled slowly. "I know you're a big mess of nerves right now – but getting pissy with me won't help anyone."

"And?"

"What I said at the briefing stands."

Hellboy took a breath. "All right."

Abe watched silently, folded his fingers into his palms and waited, glad to have no part of the flare-up. Manning held out a folder to Abe, then turned to leave with a flat, "Have a good trip."

Red stepped closer to Abe. "I wasn't going to argue about who's going to Ireland. I'd like it anytime but now."

"My job will be nothing that Manning expects," Abe answered. "I won't be guided by this propagandist information." He offered the folder.

"I have one. I'll open it on the plane. Thanks for researching." He shifted his hands to his hips and paced. "This could be the saddest mission ever, Blue. If we don't find those kids alive and well, wherever they are -"

Abe extended his hand to Hellboy's shoulder. "You'll find the way, Red," he encouraged, "as I must. It will work." The merman moved closer. "And when we return, I'll be pleased beyond imagining to see your children."

Feeling more than grateful to absorb Abe's peace, Hellboy looked open-heartedly at his friend.

"Thanks, Brother. I needed that."


	2. Portal

"You don't need to guide me everywhere, dear," Dr. Samarand chuckled to Hellboy. "My white cane and I are old friends." The doctor pushed out of her aisle seat and prepared to take a walk.

"My, but this aircraft is so comfortable."

"Okay, Nina."

Agent Sid London dropped into Nina's seat. "Small team," he observed. "I'll keep good watch over your blind doctor. Is she as good as they say?"

"Better."

"Fill me in. What's the worst that could happen?"

"Worst is for her to get sucked into a variable-dimension portal and be lost," answered Hellboy.

"She's going to be sounding for a portal."

"Right."

"The portal is for you," confirmed London.

"Uh-huh."

"So what if you get sucked in and lost?"

Hellboy held up his left wrist, bound with his late father's crucifix. "That's what this is for."

London vacated Nina's seat for one across the aisle.

"Now," she said brightly, "where will the very charming agent London be taking me first?"

"All the births took place at the Mercy Medical Center, right in the town of Mount Shasta," Hellboy told them. "Mosey around the most likely areas"-

"Oh, I know where to mosey, my dear," Nina interrupted.

"You might attract some spectators."

"And I'll chase them off, call you in from hiding so you can catch your portal," finished London.

"That's the Reader's Digest version," agreed Hellboy.

After the landing, the the plan was firmed that Hellboy would wait outside in the hospital parking lot for instructions.

Receiving authorization to wander the hospital, London placed Nina's arm on his. A charge nurse looked at them oddly, but having been told to cooperate, led them to the maternity wing.

"It's so quiet," Nina remarked.

"No one will come to deliver here, after the events of last week," explained the nurse. "As you requested, you're on your own. I hardly understand what you mean to accomplish. Just check out when you're done."

"Yes, thank you."

"Come with me while I check something out," London whispered to Nina.

"What?"

"Just an earthbound exit door without an alarm. For Red."

As they walked, Nina searched for energy fields that didn't belong. "This is pleasant," she smiled, squeezing London's arm. "Times were that I worked alone, but I was much younger. I feel so safe with you, agent London."

"Then you won't scream if I need to grab a handful of your dress to drag you back from an evil portal."

"No portals are evil, sir. Only those who try to use them for such." Nina's next clutch on his arm got his attention. "Sid!" she gasped, "Take me there!" She pointed with her cane.

The pair negotiated corridors and rooms until Nina was satisfied, but confused.

"This is another delivery room," London informed.

"Sid!" she cried softly in distress, "There is more than one opening!"

Holding her firmly as she approached the end of the birthing bed, London was ready for anything. Nina's skirt swirled toward the wall. Her cane was torn from her hand, to be seen no more. Backing her up, London declared, "Well, that proves it. Let's go get Red."

Nina's success made her most unhappy. Hellboy entered the covert door from outside with his tail curled up high and his coat pulled over his head. The three rushed back to the delivery room. Just inside the door, Nina threw her arms around Hellboy's neck, startling him.

"Red! I'm so afraid for you!"

"I need for you not to be afraid, Doc," he soothed.

"This is the strongest portal, but there are more!"

"Why the strongest?"

"This one pulled the Doc's cane right out of her hand," supplied London.

"Then that," Hellboy joked, "will be my good luck charm." He gently disengaged Nina's arms and followed London's point. London slapped his shoulder and tried not to look grim. Nina instantly seized London's arm and hung her head.

Hellboy clutched his coat tight. "See ya later." In one bold stride, he was gone.

London straightened up. "I have a feeling we won't get out as quietly as we came in," he said to Nina. "Can you find us a friendly room? If you want, I'll fix your hair. It's a mess. I had three sisters, you know." Nina appreciated his efforts to make her smile.

"My gallant escort, you may do whatever to my hair."

Minutes later, London with Nina on his arm went to the desk of the charge nurse.

"Did you find what you wanted?" she asked, noting Nina's reddened eyes.

"Yes, M'am," London answered.

"You may have to explain that to some bereaved parents," she leaned forward to whisper, pointing to a waiting room.

"Are you up to this?" he asked Nina. She nodded, so reluctantly, he guided her to the room of milling couples.

"Excuse me for not seeing you. I am blind," she began. "Will you first tell me what you think happened to your children?"

"This place is cursed," one man said bitterly.

"No longer," answered Nina. "A man has willingly sacrificed himself today, to remove it."

"That's crazy!" someone derided, "What are you?"

"A birthing physician, a seer. Believe me when I say that we have a great power gone forth on your behalf. It may be the only hope. Please give your names to my escort, and I will contact you with any news."

"We're not angry with you," a woman spoke up. "What good comes of that? Most of us have gone to our sacred mountain to ask for reasons and answers, every day. We hope for the same as what you say."

"Bless you for trying to help," said another.

"My supervisor is very tired," London said gently. "I'll be glad to collect your contact information." London filled his pocket with notes, then led Nina outside to the truck.

"How about I take you to your hotel, boss?"

"You're such a good bodyguard," Nina smiled sadly. "This day has taken so much out of me. I'm far too worried about Hellboy to sleep now. Will you take me out for a drink, and talk?"

"Sure thing." London began to look for a nice, quiet cocktail lounge. "What did you mean, the curse is removed?"

"When someone enters such a portal of free will, it closes for all time."

"And the other portals?"

"Extremely weak and dying."

"So wherever Red returns, if he does, is a crapshoot?"

"I believe he would call it that," Nina sighed miserably. "What's done is done. I'll never forgive myself."


	3. Spirit Shaman

Hellboy was thrown hard onto a rock surface, rolling over several times before he struck a wall. Feeling for the Samaritan, he sat in place to look around. It wasn't completely dark. About twenty feet away, a small fire burned on the floor. He was in a wide, high tunnel, roughly chopped out of the rock. He walked slowly toward the fire, listening and trying to see what was ahead. His hand, skimming the wall, touched a bristly surface. Passing over it again, he found it was the stretched pelt of a large animal. Another fire. These were spaced at intervals along one wall. As he went forward, he wondered how the fires lived in this underground. He was used to realms that obeyed no physical laws of Earth. He found many more pelts of different kinds displayed along his way, like possessions of a proud owner.

Hearing a light scratching sound, he stopped. Just behind the next fire, he saw a dog-like creature, staring. An animal, unafraid of flames – it raised it's slim muzzle, displaying its yellow-tinged fur and bushy tail as it turned with a jump and bounded away.

Hellboy picked up one of the burning branches to light his way. Better to stay low-tech here, he thought, blend in with the locals. Entering a shallow bend along the wall, he stopped dead. Before him stood a magnificent elk, still and regarding him with calm. Its ears swiveled and canted forward. It was then that Hellboy saw a long string of shells suspended from its one pierced lobe. Was this formidable woodland herd king tame, a pet? It lowered its head, not to threaten with its large spread of antlers, and snorted gently. Intrigued, Hellboy decided to follow at a respectful distance when the elk turned and walked placidly away. It left splashes of blood in its path. Strangely, the uneven sounds of the animal's hooves silenced as it seemed to disappear into the wall.

A short distance away now, was a round reed hut surrounded by several ground fires. From behind it rose up a woman from a long-ago age. Dressed in a deerskin tunic, she walked lightly toward him, stood and stared. She too, wore an earring made from a long sequence of shells. Her hair was chopped short about her distinctive cheekbones. Her right hand reached to remove a cylindrical shell that fastened her dress at one shoulder, then the other. The skin dress slid from her, to the stone floor. Naked, and without change of expression, she signaled him to do the same. Her demeanor was stern, even sad. There was surely a bloody wound above her left breast. There was no invitation about her. Recognizing that she needed him to show trust and vulnerability, he obeyed. As his belt was laid on the floor, she knelt to pass her palm over the amulets, the cross and the Samaritan. She made no attempt to handle them further. When he had stripped and stood tall before her, she evinced no surprise at any part of him. Hellboy suspected that she had owned horns, hooves and a tail, just moments before. She turned to walk reverently to the hidden side of the reed hut, and bent down out of sight.

Hellboy followed. The surface of the hut radiated moist heat. Finding the entrance to the sweat lodge not fitted to his size, he crawled in, leading with his head and one shoulder. Once inside and seated with his back to a curved wall, he saw it wasn't as small as it had appeared. He peered through clouds of steam. Against the opposite wall sat a copper-skinned man, pouring a gourd of water over a cluster of heated rocks. He levelled his dark, tilted eyes at the red giant. As he casually pushed his short, damp hair back from his temples, Hellboy noted his identical shell earring.

The man spoke to him, in breathy, soft syllables through barely open lips. Hellboy shook his head once in apology and thought hard – had he ever known this language?

Now, clearly, the man said to him, "Lokan knows you." And Hellboy nodded, understanding.

"You are not a newborn one," the man said next.

"Not for a long time," answered Hellboy in Lokan Sioux.

"I appeared as a she, so you would not be frightened," he explained, with a sly gleam. "I've seen no other man-being for countless seasons."

Coyote poked its head into the sweat lodge, and withdrew as quickly.

"What are you named?" Hellboy asked.

"I am the Failed," said the man, and his guest noted a gory wound in his left chest. "No other."

"I would call you Elk, the way I first saw you."

He approved. "You must be purified here to face the spirits of my mountain."

"Fine with me." The demon hoped, wondered, if this was the exact destination.

"Yet, if you had no power, you would not be here," said Elk, eerily smiling, partly hidden by the wisps of steam. "Someone has been seeking...I have no name for you."

Elk had a way of changing subjects. Hellboy guessed that he was a shaman from one of the ancient tribes.

"My name – is Red."

"Yellow, white, black, red," intoned Elk, reciting his culture's colours of the four directions, "but you come from the east – and before that..." his eyes widened. He began to chant to himself, then declared, "You be young, and very old, but not a spirit."

Hellboy had questions. He decided to wait until Elk was satisfied with evaluating him.

But Elk continued as though he knew the progression that must take place. "My people were once as many as the salmon. Now my descendants are shadows of what was," he said mournfully. "But I see them yet making tribute to their sacred mountain."

"How do you see them?" Hellboy needed to know.

"The Great Sky Spirit opens a door, but holds me here." He raised his left arm, to show a stump at the wrist. "I reached through. The lightning fire took it."

"You spoke of newborn," ventured Hellboy.

"They were on a dangerous path to ancient evil. I brought them to me. The mountain protected them, but I cannot sustain them." He looked meaningfully at his guest. "You are tasked, as I am in this." He threw a piece of bark cloth to Hellboy, and with another, dried the sweat rivulets from his face. Without ceremony, Elk crept out of the sweat lodge. As Hellboy emerged, he saw that Elk was standing, clad in buckskin. Coyote sat by his feet. Grabbing his clothing, Hellboy dressed fast. Something was about to happen.

Elk led a distance along the tunnel, stopping at a deep depression carved into the stone. He climbed down a ladder of stout, sinew-bound branches. Hellboy at first doubted that the structure would hold his weight, but discarded that to accept the spirit magic. The small cavern below was dimly lit by sap torches and warmed by drafts of a hot spring.

Elk stood before him. "I do not live, sleep, eat, or drink. I believe that you have seen many spirits – and ghosts." He frowned at the last. Going to a wall, he raised a torch.

Hellboy breathed out in astonishment to see deep pouches hung by slings on the wall. In each of eight soft hide wrappings, was curled a tiny human baby.

"Are they alive?" he asked the shaman.

"They live, to sleep without end in this form. I fathered many sons and daughters with my wives. May I be forgiven to join them!" he prayed earnestly. "These little ones," he continued, "must be returned to the lives they are meant to live."

"I know where they live," Hellboy revealed, feeling a wave of relief.

"You cannot lie to me, Red One," Elk said with sureness. "I sent my plea out to the great infinity, and was answered."

"What must I do to take them home?"

Elk turned his eyes to the warm vapours of the hot spring. "I will baptize them in the way of my time."

Carefully carrying a baby, Elk crossed to the opposite wall to choose a pair of eagle feathers, which he brought with him as he knelt by the spring's mouth. He passed the child over the rising steam, murmuring his traditional blessing, ending with the touch of the sacred feathers. He looked up. "Red One – bring another to me, but mark, your hand must touch only the strip that joins the pouch."

So it went, Elk and Hellboy passing the infants between them, until the baptisms were completed.

To Hellboy's questioning look, Elk said, "As they feel the touch of a warm, living being, they will awake, suffer hunger and thirst, and begin to die."

"Show me where to cross over." Hellboy's voice rasped with urgency.

"It moves as a living thing," Elk replied. "I pray for the Great Sky Spirit to look with forgiveness upon me, to give me a sign." In the next second, he instructed, "Take them to your body."

Hellboy gathered the first baby to his chest, stroking its hand. It immediately whimpered and moved feebly within the pouch.

Elk exclaimed with excitement, "You were sent to make this so!"

With haste, Elk tied together the straps of his handiwork, to bind the tiny bodies to Hellboy's torso. He secured them further with long belts made from his own hair.

Now everything depended on the shaman. Back into the tunnel he led Hellboy, with Coyote trotting ahead, to the place where he first saw him enter. Elk prayed with every step. With a sudden cry, he looked at Hellboy rapturously. "The Spirit is kind!"

They turned to behold a shimmer in the solid stone wall.


	4. Liberi

Hellboy's heart pounded hard. He felt alive and driven. He looked down his chest at a newborn's fuzzy head, the child's tiny fists curled and held to both cheeks, and its eyes softly closed. He felt the stirrings of each baby, little arms and legs stretching and bunching against his front and sides. Small grunts and mews spoke to him from every soft swaddling pouch. He listened to the sounds of rosebud lips, suckling at – nothing. Hellboy was very concerned that no infant had the strength to cry.

He drew in a freezing breath at the sight of the world outside the portal. "It's a glacier!"

"Go!" he heard Elk cry out behind him. "Look not back!"

"Take your forgiveness," Hellboy thought, and he lunged through.

He could never tell with portals – how or where the landing would be. He emerged into near black night, the ground uneven as he struck down. "Crap!" Throwing out his arms for balance, he twisted his falling body to crash down on his back. With the jolt, came startled newborn wails. Hurrying, Hellboy probed every pouch to feel the life in the eight awakened little ones. Time to get his bearings. The sky was above, where it should be. His fingers raked through the cool grass where he had fallen. He heard rushing water close by, and stood up to find the source. Kneeling by a rustic little stream, he dipped into it and drank from his left hand, tasting the sweetest, most reviving water he'd ever known. Taking a flask from his coat, he filled it and bent to the crystal stream to drink again. He listened to his surroundings. Cars! He could almost see the lines of traffic from his position. He'd learned about this place where the stream gushed unspoiled from these rocks, originating from the glacial melt of Mount Shasta. Thank you, Abe! He searched to see the moonlit outline of the sacred mountain far in the distance. He was in the city park!

The water he'd collected would have to be warmed before the babies could drink. He shoved the flask into the back waistband of his leather, letting out one hard shiver at the freezing metal contact. Hellboy pulled his coat snugly around his babies and signalled agent London. Heartened by the little pushes he felt against his body, the soundings of their cries on his skin, he could finally speak glad words. "Going to get you fed, little buddies." The rumble of his voice calmed them.

"Red! Omigod, Red!" London's exhuberance came through too loud and clear. "Are you good? Where are you?!"

"Real good. Get Nina in the truck and pick me up as fast as you can. I'm hanging back in the town's city park."

Hellboy spent the wait time hurrying up the warming of the flask with the flame of his Zippo lighter. Carefully, he tipped small drinks into the mouth of each baby. Within half an hour, London's truck came into view. He ran up to Hellboy with a huge grin, stopping short at the amazing sight of the giant demon agent, adorned as he was.

"Got diapers?" was London's first quip.

"You wouldn't believe it..." Hellboy answered mysteriously, as he rushed to open the back door to greet Nina and climb in beside her. Her eyes widened at the unmistakeable newborn sounds. She grabbed him into an enthusiastic hug. "You're alive! And here!" she rejoiced, "How did you do this?" The drive to the hospital seemed short. Hellboy unfastened the bindings from his body within the warmth of the truck and placed one of the babies into Nina's lap, then two more. "It was such a terrible tragedy, and now I'm so happy to be here! The parents! Oh, the parents!" she cried, enfolding the little ones in her long skirt.

"Later, Doc – tell you everything. Soon, we'll be outside the Emergency doors. London, park off to the side and go get me a cart, or something, okay?" When all of the infants were untied from him, Hellboy turned to Nina. "Can I have your scarf to dress a kid? These holders were made by a spirit shaman. I'm going to keep one." Nina handed him a large woven square.

"They do seem quite cozy in these, like purses, so soft." She raised her head to say gently, "This is becoming natural to you, isn't it?" She must have felt that he was spending the last seconds stroking little heads and smiling at tiny fists gripping his fingers.

"I want them to go home," he answered quietly. "_I_ want to go home."

London returned on the run, bringing a canvas laundry cart. "All I could grab on the sly," he explained. Hellboy and Nina remained in the truck while London placed each infant carefully into the cart, then turned to wheel them inside.

"Tell somebody, they need to eat!" Hellboy yelled after him.

London jogged back minutes later, beaming. "I promised letters from Nina. We beat the press. Our getaway is good." He climbed in to take the wheel and pulled away from the hospital. "The parents say I'm the champion they'll always remember. They'll bless my name at every festival and dance in my honour."

"Good for you," chuckled Hellboy, "maybe you should stay."

"I'm driving straight to the plane," London laughed. "Do you think I want to miss the big event at home?"

"My own kids," Hellboy murmured to Nina. "I haven't thought of anything else."


	5. Our Own

Knowing she'd be waiting, Hellboy's first call went out to Liz. "I didn't figure for the time zone, Babe," he apologized.

"Are you kidding?! All three of us can rest easy now. Hurry home!"

"You were never off my mind. Love you, Liz."

On the flight back, London pushed a satellite phone into Hellboy's hand.

"Sleep denied," London chirped. "It's your buddy."

"Good timing, Red," came the welcome voice of Abe Sapien. "I'll be enroute home tomorrow because I've found no evidence of other stolen children."

"Great," congratulated Red. "Who did you talk to?"

"The Druid Master Council, who assisted in channelling many streams of willing information from other sources. Old alliances are strengthened, and hopefully, new ones have been made. The European reports were very exaggerated, I'm happy to say. Gossip and panic runs just as wild in the paranormal realm. You have too long a story on your success, I'm sure, to relate it now, so save it for me until we get home."

"That's what I'm thinking, Blue. Save yours for me, too. Later."

Rested up and assembled again for debriefing, the principal agents gave their accounts.

Hellboy decided that his suspicions about the spirit shaman's desperate personal agenda were right – commit the kidnapping so he could look like a savior for the rescue, and be granted the way to his own long dead family. If the Great Sky Spirit saw all and had a hand in the return of the children, what would happen to Elk? The heart wound he carried would have been fatal in his earthly life – execution for failures as a healer. Hellboy's destruction of the portal had sealed Elk's power away from the normal world – he hoped.

The table considered what limited information Dr. Nina should submit in her explanations to the Mt. Shasta parents. She was adamant that she had promised.

"Now, please let me tend to my expectant mother," she said, standing and reaching for Hellboy to take her hand.

-

On the day that Liz went into labour, she let Red sit by her in the Bureau's medical wing until her pains became too insistent for her to control. There was barely time for him to kiss her damp forehead before she was wheeled to a room specially appointed by Dr. Nina, as there had never been a necessity for a facility to give birth, anticipated within the walls of the B.P.R.D.

"Thanks for hanging with me," Hellboy said to Abe Sapien. "She doesn't want me in there – something about her pride, I guess, so I don't think of her looking that way."

"Whatever her reasons, you must indulge her," Abe comforted. "It could be some time before you're called. How do you feel?"

"I'm not used to this helpless feeling. And being scared."

"Exactly as expectant fathers have been affected, since the model was made." Abe was determined to be supportive. He and Red, passing the time in his quarters, looked across the table at each other, in awkward silence.

Abe observed, "The pet population is no more."

"Yeah, all moved to a place of their own, down the hall," Red grinned. "I got Manning to agree to that one."

"It would have been an interesting negotiation. I'm glad I wasn't there."

"What am I supposed to do?" Red threw up his hands. "I'm not hungry, wide awake, restless, can't stand this!"

"Wait, Red, only wait. Nina will have her assistant relay any news to you, remember?"

"Nothing yet," Red grumbled.

"Then all is proceeding well," Abe replied, wondering how to occupy his friend. He decided to ask Red to show him where Liz had set up the nursery, and admired all the prepared supplies, furniture and the infant beds.

"Kinda small," Red remarked.

"Each child will weigh approximately ten pounds at birth," Abe told him. "Am I more well acquainted with the details than you, father-to-be?"

"My dear," Nina said to her patient, "You'll have far less pain than you're experiencing now. I'll gauge the time to divert pertinent neurons, and giving birth will be entirely a joy."

"I'm – so lucky – to have you," Liz gasped, squeezing Nina's hand. "Tell Red?"

"A woman with a deep desire to have a child has the greatest courage to bear any level of pain to see it through," Abe knew he was rambling to Red. "No man could survive it." He saw the dawning horror in Hellboy's eyes. "But this won't happen to Liz! Her doctor is specially talented."

"I'm trying not to forget what Nina's told me." Red leaned his forehead into his hand. "My brain's turned to mush."

Abe reminded Red of the positive ultrasound images of his children, that his huge stone arm and hand weren't part of his genetic material, so it wouldn't be reproduced.

"It's all my own, I know," Red mused, curling his stone fingers into a fist, "the way it has to be – my hell of a hammer."

More than an hour ticked away. The impatient father was most relieved to hear no screams in the background when the channel opened for bulletins.

Abe had held back revealing more in his fount of medical knowledge, not wishing to upset Red.

"You're as ready as you can be, my friend," Abe teased. "You've showered twice."

Hellboy half-smiled and idly spun his mobile in circles on the table.

"Message!" Red jumped up.

"Red, I want you!" Liz herself called out to him.

Abe grabbed Red by the shoulder as he nearly staggered, and happily steered him to the delivery room. Hellboy waited for the door to be opened and rushed inside. He tolerated the delay of being dressed in sterile cover.

Liz, seated cross-legged in bed, winked at the limited view of his masked face as he hurried to her. Their arms reached for each other. She quickly lifted the mask to kiss him.

"Where are they?!" he whispered anxiously.

"Getting cleaned up for you."

"Cleaned up? Do they need it?"

Liz grinned. "You haven't been listening to Nina and Abe, have you?"

"Did it hurt a lot?" His eyes were endearingly earnest.

"Not so much. I'd do it again!" she whispered back.

She leaned to watch the doors opening. Nina arrived with her hand on the arm of her nurse, who carried two bundles swaddled in white. Placing them gently on the bed, she smiled broadly at the enchanted parents. Liz bent to lift one of her infants into the cradle of her arms. "I don't believe in pink and blue."

"A girl, a boy.." Red breathed in wonder. Pressing aside the blanket to see his newborn's face, he felt awed and amazed. "Who?" he mouthed to Liz.

"I just don't know right now. Take a look."

Carefully unwrapping this gift with slightly trembling fingers, Red stared, charmed by the sight of his tall baby boy. Inherited from his father, a fairer red skin, but so tenderly soft – little, delicately pointed ears, and a slender tail. The carved runes marking the demon's right shoulder were not evident on his child. When Red stroked his cheek, the little boy opened his sleepy eyes to show dark pupils flecked with gold. He waved his little fists, then pressed them to each side of his face. Hellboy recognized this move of self-comforting. Knowing that his son would like to be securely wrapped, he needed to touch one more thing – the baby's pair of near-human feet. The women watched with enjoyment as he wound the blanket about the baby and secured the free corner by tucking it in.

"You've done this before," smiled the nurse, taking the boy to Liz. As she handed him his daughter, Hellboy had to wipe his eyes. He looked long at her round cheeks, miniature nose and dainty lips. When he raised his face to Liz, she said simply, "Our daughter looks the same as her brother, except shorter."

"Beautiful, Liz," he said, moving closer to her at the head of the bed. He looked adoringly at his baby girl on his arm, then deeply studied his woman's face. "You're beautiful."

"And how about all this thick black hair?" Liz glowed as her finger smoothed their daughter's fuzzy head.

"Looks good on us, too," he agreed.

The baby girl began to push elbows and knees against the confines of her swaddling and screwed up her face to cry. Red stood up and cuddled his daughter to his chest. He crooned to her in his deep voice and stroked her little back.

"See?" he said with quiet pride, "I can do it."

-

When the twins were three days old, Red was lying propped up against the sideboards of his bed, with both babies held in the curve of his right arm. He straightened a little hat, adjusted the fit of tiny cotton socks. "Don't worry, kids," he murmured, "You'll stop swimming in your sleepers, I give it three weeks. I learned everything about babies, you believe that?"

Becoming pensive as his eyes landed on his left wrist rosary, he looked up.

"Pop, I wish that you, more than anyone, were here to see this. I never thought this miracle could ever happen to me. Look, here's your grandson, Trevor the Third. And granddaughter, Gentan. My twins! How can I thank you enough for saving me, raising me and bringing me into the Bureau – where I found Liz! She made me a father, and I want to be as good as you were to me. Don't worry about me now. I miss you, Pop. And I love you."

He shifted his position to bent legs and laid the little ones on his thighs, to better see them temporarily awake. He loved to lose himself in their brown-gold eyes as they looked back at him. "I was talking to a man you should have known," he spoke softly, "One more to love you. I'll tell you all about Pop someday." The babies' yawning and blinking brought him back to the present. "Wait 'til you taste your first pamcakes!" He mugged a face of delight. "Sorry you won't get to meet the kitties until you're older. I've got lots of videos to make you laugh, and the best music the 70's ever made. You'll never be without TV, or games. Excited? Look around, kids." Their Dad stretched his arms high. "Someday, all this will be yours!"


End file.
